


Fill Your Cup

by ifwegettherebysunset



Category: Yu-Gi-Oh!
Genre: Angst, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Established Relationship, Hurt/Comfort, Kaiba is an Asshole Who Cares, M/M, Post-Series, but we already knew that, just wanted to remind y'all, post-dsod
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-21
Updated: 2020-01-21
Packaged: 2021-02-27 20:40:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,391
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22349698
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ifwegettherebysunset/pseuds/ifwegettherebysunset
Summary: Yugi's grandpa is in the hospital.
Relationships: Kaiba Seto/Mutou Yuugi
Comments: 13
Kudos: 95





	Fill Your Cup

It's close to two-thirty in the morning. Yugi's not surprised that Seto answers the door fully dressed.

"What?" Kaiba says flatly.

Yugi's thought about what to say.

"Um."

Seto crosses his arms. "I don't have all night."

Yugi swallows. "I was wondering. If you wanted to duel."

To Seto, he looks like the pitiful runt from six years ago, hunched, eyes averted, voice quiet and stuttering. He scoffs at him.

"Normally I would, but you don't look much like a challenge."

Yugi flinches. "My uh. My grandpa's..." his throat tightens. He clears his throat. "He's um. Hospital. In the hospital."

He tries to look Seto in the eye. It turns into a fleeting glance. Seto's expression hasn't changed.

"They, uh. They kicked me out." Yugi tries to laugh. "Visiting hours and all."

Quiet.

Seto's boots retreat from view. "I have work to do. Don't expect me to babysit you."

Yugi breathes out and closes the door behind him. Mokuba's just coming out of the office, tablet in hand and also fully dressed.

"Oh, hey Yugi!" he chirps, eyes on the digital page. "Good. Thought it was some desperate suit."

Yugi tries another laugh. "You get those a lot?"

"Ugh, more than you think. Whoa." Mokuba blinks owlishly at him. "You look awful."

"Gee, thanks."

"No, seriously." The tablet drops to Mokuba's side. "What happened? You okay?"

He looks to Seto. Yugi purses his lips, bracing himself to say it again.

"His grandfather's in the hospital," Seto replies curtly, "so he thought he could challenge me to a duel. As if I'd waste my time."

Mokuba sighs. "Seto, you're being insensitive again."

Yugi's next laugh is a little more genuine. "It's okay."

"No, it's not! Is he gonna be alright?"

"Y-yeah. Yeah. Just a, um." Yugi takes a breath. "Fall."

Mokuba hisses. After another glance at his brother, he grasps Yugi's shoulder and starts leading him to the kitchen. "I'll get tea going. Want anything, Seto?"

Seto grunts, already halfway back to the office.

Mokuba huffs. Once they're in the kitchen, he says, "I love my brother, but sometimes I don't know why you date him."

Yugi wonders what the Mokuba he once knew would say about that. He can only shrug and reply, "I know him."

Mokuba trills his lips and starts the kettle. His tablet is abandoned on the counter separating him and Yugi. Yugi tilts his head to read it despite knowing he probably shouldn't. It's just a spreadsheet with numbers and labels that don't make sense out of context. He quickly loses interest. He's losing interest in everything tonight.

He's not even sure if they talk while the kettle heats. Just that, at some point, he's holding a steaming cup and Mokuba's patting his back.

"You know the way to Seto's room," Mokuba's telling him, "Call if you need anything, okay?"

Yugi gives him a shaky smile. "Thank you. Sorry for disturbing."

"Hey, wanting some support from your boyfriend _isn't_ disturbing."

Mokuba leaves. Yugi's slow to leave too. He feels bone tired and terribly awake.

Eventually, he enters Seto's room. Its walls are unobtrusive white, with dark wood and navy furnishings. It's clear he doesn't spend much time here. There are no knick-knacks or crinkles. His closet has a mirror on one door, and Yugi gets a look at himself in the weak moonlight. A haggard creature with hollow eyes stares back.

Yugi goes to the dresser next to the closet. The bottom drawer has Seto's simplest clothes. He grabs a black t-shirt, then thinks of mourning and drops it with a gasp. He swallows. Breathes. Goes for a dark red that reminds him, as many things do, of Atem.

Atem would know exactly what to say. Yugi groans quietly and fails to not grab at his chest. That final meeting...it had been fulfilling, wonderful even. Atem hadn't wanted to go, but he'd found peace in the end.

But it hurts. It hurts so fucking much.

Yugi leaves his clothes on the floor, leaving only his boxers. He pulls Seto's t-shirt over him. It drops just over his knees.

His steaming mug is left abandoned on the bedside table. Yugi heads to the bathroom, washes his face.

He sits on the edge of the bed. The heated floor sighs around his toes, the only source of warmth in the choking weight around him.

His grandpa is fine. He's _fine_. It's just overnight observation. Just a fall. He'd tripped. Carried too many games again without telling Yugi.

Yugi hugs his knees to his chest, blowing out another breath. He should've gone to Joey. But his friend had already stayed with him at the hospital as long as he could, and had work tomorrow besides.

Kaiba has work too, though. Irritation spikes. Kaiba _always_ has work.

Yugi rubs his forehead. Now is definitely not the time for more negative thoughts.

The door opens behind him.

"I'll be fine, Mokuba," Yugi says tightly, "I'm actually gonna head home."

"Dressed like that?"

Yugi whirls around. "Oh."

Seto kicks the door closed, hands full with two Blue-Eyes mugs. "Mokuba insisted you get more."

"...right." Mokuba always has to insist. "Thanks."

Seto hands him the mug. He sits by him. Yugi tries not to show his surprise, looking down at the tea. It smells like honey and lavender.

"Your work is important."

"Yes."

"And you hate interruptions."

"Yes."

Yugi's lips twist. He fingers Blue-Eyes' eye. "Yeah. So."

Seto takes a sip of his own drink. It smells like coffee. As if he needs more. But he doesn't leave, and Yugi's noticing he doesn't have his coat on.

"It's...it's really not a big deal." Yugi shrugs. "Don't know why I uh. Made a big deal. Just a fall and stuff."

"It happens. You should be prepared for more."

Yugi recoils a bit. "...y-yeah," he croaks, "Yeah I. I know. Um."

Seto sighs through his nose. He reaches across to take their mugs and put them on the table, beside the now-cold one. "I'm not helping."

Yugi starts. "What?"

"Listen, Yugi." Seto gives him a haughty look. "I don't know why you came here."

"You know why I came," Yugi snaps. "I thought you stopped lying to yourself."

They scowl at each other.

Seto surprises him again by sighing and turning away, though his posture is still ramrod. "You know I'm not the mushy type."

"You had a mentor." Seto stiffens. "Someone you cared about. He'd been on life support. You'd...you know what it feels like."

A pause. "I didn't think you remembered him."

Yugi balks. "Of course I do!"

"Atem had been in control."

"I got him to share the early days." Yugi's voice goes soft. "He didn't talk to me for days afterward."

Seto stares until their eyes meet.

"The situation is entirely different," he says.

"But like you said, I should prepare." Yugi shakes his head. "This...it won't be the last time." He vigorously wipes his eyes.

They sit like that for who knows how long.

Then Seto puts an arm around him. A bit awkwardly, with a few hard glances, but he draws Yugi close. His heartbeat, quick from caffeine, pounds at Yugi's head.

Yugi starts to shake. Then he tentatively puts a hand on Seto's chest. Then his other arm goes around Seto's waist, creeping up his back to push between his shoulder blades.

"I'm gonna cry," Yugi says.

"...fine," Seto replies.

* * *

Seto holds him through the rest of the night and some of the morning, gradually maneuvering them onto their backs. Yugi falls asleep at some point; Seto doesn't move.

When Yugi opens his eyes to bright windows, Seto says, "When he was put on life support, the last thing I'd wanted to be was alone."

Yugi peeks up at him. His eyes are fixed on the ceiling.

"You're not alone, Yugi."

Yugi doesn't have any tears left. So he holds Seto tighter and whispers a thank you.

Seto turns on his side and tucks him under his chin. "Mokuba tells me I need to work on. This. And my work is important."

Yugi chokes a laugh.

They only move when Yugi does.

When Seto goes, he pauses in the doorway, his back to him. "You know where everything is. Stay as long as you want."

He leaves before Yugi can give him another thank you.

**Author's Note:**

> I barely got any sleep last night and this came to be at like, 3 am. Bitch kept me up when I didn't write it.


End file.
